Talk Vomit

In 2019, Monica seemed like the very cool Emmanuel alum who had lived in New York with her very cool boyfriend and did very cool things. I was her personal reply guy which eventually got me access to her close friends story. (Forever thankful that I am annoying on the internet.)

I was working two jobs while in grad school and navigating a painfully messy breakup. I had no creative experience beyond utilizing public spaces of internet as my private journal. I don’t know what I expected when I first reached out to Monica with a message different from my usual compliment to her hair or her choice of dog walking locations but I could have never imagined the ways in which this project has shaped my life. I was just a lonely girl looking to get involved and maybe befriend the Cool Girl that I had secretly admired on the internet for years.

We exchanged non-stop (and I mean non-stop) DM’s for an entire day despite having never spoken a word to each other in real life.

I loved it and I wanted to be a part of it. I so desperately wanted a space that allowed the internet to be fun. Monica did too and that’s where it all started.

Within a few weeks we were fast friends. Our non-stop DM’s turned into non-stop texts that still haven’t stopped two years later. We got to work with no real idea if anyone would submit to us. Just two girls who both thought that the other was way cooler than they actually are creating our dream internet space via text message.

Within two months, on May 6, 2019, we were launching. I didn’t even know how to use photoshop. I taped letters onto seran wrap and held it up over a dollar store table cloth and dollar store flowers.

And on May 9th, we had our first ever post. Monica reflected on looking forward. Time does pass, thankfully. I think at times, especially during this past year, it is so easy to feel stuck in its passing. Life moves so slowly and yet there is something so beautiful about that. So much can change in just two years.

Two girls who had never even met and a website that was just an idea. Time moves forward. We hit our goal this year to become a paying publication. We have submissions from around the world. And perhaps more importantly, Monica has become one of the most important people in my life, and our vision for Talk Vomit has stayed largely the same from those very first messages.

Next weekend, Monica is getting married and I am in her wedding. To perhaps the surprise of no one, neither of us were ever kind of done with this and we have been chatting continuously this whole time.

To Monica’s point about looking forward, these two years feel like only the beginning. Thank you to everyone who let us read and publish your work. Thank you to everyone who submitted their drafts, who clicked the links in our bio, who came to book club and stayed along for this journey. We are here but we wouldn’t be here without you.

And thank you, Monica, for trusting me with your passion project two years ago. You are a the most wonderful friend I could ask for (even if you aren’t the posh NYC queen I had imagined you to be). I don’t know what the proverbial pot at the end of the rainbow was that you were imagining on May 9, 2019 but this feels like a pretty good one.